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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Mariners: The First Rung of the Ladder 2

The Solway with its sand
banks and shallow waters was always a difficult stretch of water to navigate. A
flag was hoisted when it was safe for sailing vessels to enter port, and in
later years steam tugs aided vessels in and out of the harbour and along navigable
channels. This is an appropriate analogy
for the career of the mariner apprentice, navigating the shoals and hazards as
he started out on his voyage and requiring an experienced pilot to guide him through the channel ahead
and reach safe anchorage.

A view of Ritson's shipyard, showing a
ship under construction on a slipway. The town of Maryport progressed as an industrial centre
throughout the 19th century. The port developed and shipyards such as Wood's, Peat's and Ritson's yard were established. Ritson's was famous for launching ships
broadside into the River Ellen as it wasn't wide enough for ships to be launched in the usual way.

It is certain that Bell was apprenticed to
John Ritson, who was the founder of the Maryport shipbuilding firm of that
name, though Ritson had been manager of the John Peat yard before launching his own
business. He might have apprenticed Bell
whilst still managing Peat’s. Ritson had been a ship’s carpenter and
reputedly could handle every tool from the adze to the caulking tool with great
skill. It’s quite feasible that Bell
served his apprenticeship as a ship’s carpenter, a shipwright, and went to sea
as a fully-fledged ‘chippie’. The average ship’s carpenter made his first
voyage at 20 years plus (though it's scarcely credible that Bell waited until 1827).

Most Cumbrian shipbuilding
firms were also shipowners – either minority shareholders or Managing Owners.
Sometimes vessels were built by the yards speculatively in times of no orders,
but shipowners they invariably were and also frequently merchants trading on
their own behalf: useful hedges against the ups and downs of shipbuilding to
order.

Perhaps Bell was a Ritson employee on a
Ritson built and owned vessel trading to the Cape, liked what he saw, engaged
with owners who traded more regularly with the Cape, e.g. the owners of the
Thorne, and eventually made the break, remaining in the Colony after that ship
was wrecked on Robben Island in 1831.*

How and why young William
made the move from his childhood environs to Maryport is a matter for
conjecture. There may have been relatives, either there or in Bowness, who had
risen to comparative affluence and were in a position to assist him. Another
alternative is that his parents were in difficult circumstances, perhaps on
Poor Relief, and that William was placed with John Ritson as a Parish
Apprentice.

In the early 1820s the area from Bowness to Carlisle was in a depressed state, many of the working people living under harsh conditions. The weather was particularly bad, the
waters of the Firth (or Frith in local parlance) rising to a greater height
than had been known for years, with widespread flooding. A native of Carlisle wrote:

Unsound barley meal … sold for as much as four shillings a
stone; while wheat flour and butchers meat were wholly beyond the reach of the
ordinary workman. It was no uncommon thing for our house to be without bread
for weeks together; and I cannot remember to have ever seen in my very early
years a joint of meat of any kind on my father’s table, oatmeal porridge and
potatoes, with an occasional taste of bacon, being our principal food.**

With such deprivation commonplace, it’s likely that Bell’s parents would encourage him to aim higher than
labouring as many men did on the planned CarlisleCanal
(opened in March 1823). In time, the Canal would bring improved communications,
the building of new ships, increased trade and a measure of prosperity but all
this was as yet in the unpredictable future. An apprenticeship for William with a reputable shipyard was a much safer bet.

Maryport by William Daniell

Titanic links: Maryport has a strong affiliation with the White Star Line and its most famous ship the Titanic. Thomas Henry Ismay, founder of the White Star Line, was born 7 January 1836
at Ropery House, Ellenborough
Place, a short distance from the southern end of
Elizabeth Dock. Married at the age of
22, Ismay had then amassed capital of £2,000 and within a decade was worth
nearly £½million. When he died in 1899
his estate was worth £1¼million.

Note: Under the Merchant Seamen,
etc, Act 1823 (4 Geo IV c 25) Masters of British merchant ships of 80 tonsand
overwere required to carry a given number of indentured apprentices. These had
to be duly enrolled with the local Customs Officer. These provisions were
extended by the Merchant Seamen Act 1835 (5 & 6 Wm IV c 19) which provided
for the registration of these indentures. In London they were registered with the General
Register and Record Office of Seamen and in other ports with the Customs
officers who were required to submit quarterly lists to the Registrar General.
In 1844 it was provided for copies of the indentures to be sent to the
Registrar General, and although compulsory apprenticeship was abolished in 1849
the system of registration was maintained. Under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894
(57 & 58 Vict c 60) a parallel arrangement was introduced for apprentices
on fishing boats.

Reference: BT 150

Registry of Shipping
and Seamen: Index of Apprentices

Description:

This series comprises
an index, compiled by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its
predecessor, of apprentices indentured in the merchant navy.